Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-11-15
A POWDER NINE HERO.
A THRILLING INCIDENT OF THE
SIEGE OF PETERSBURG.

A THRILLING INCIDENT OF THE
SIEGE OF PETERSBURG.
-
an Undertaking without Parallel in
the Annals of Military Minins-Run-
ming an Awful Risk.
When the civil war alarm burst upon the
country, in 1851, the miners of the upper
Schuyllzill region, in the mountains OF Penn
sylvania, made up a regiment, tho Forty
eighth Pennsylvania Reserve. In the ranks
of Company K was Harry Reese, a young
man without pretentions but filed with that
cuiet ardor that does not fash and fade. The
Forty-eighth served IN the early battles of
Virginia and in the southwest, in Mississippi
and Tennessee, and when the siege Of Peters
burg began, in June, 1864, the ranks Of its
thousand stalwart miners had been thinned
out by bullets and the hardships Of camp and
march to a couple of hundred and these,
though .bronzed and soldieriy looking, were
not the men of 1861, for fever and privatlon
make waste with the strongest bodies.
Reese was vet but common soldier, al
though he had won the chevrons of a ser
eesnt, one rank below an Office. When Grant
brought tbs army to the trenches before Pc
tersburs that SUMMER the ten little bands OF
the Forty eighth, numbering about twenty
men each, were placed in the front line, op-
posite the most important fort the Colfeder-
ates had for the protection of the city. 1t
had cost our army Il, 900 men 30 get up near
II -, -
believed that we could march into Peters
burg. We had spent ten days trying to carry
the position By regular assault, and at the
rate we were losing men we could throw
them all away and make no progress. These
miners were SO far front that they could hear
the enemy talk in their works, and one day
or night, rather-a sort OF neighborly council
was held il tho camp Of the Forty 5huh, and
sor1le one proposed to destroy the stubborn
stronghold that blocked the way by digging
q tunnel from their works to a point rig st
under the fort and exploding powder maya
zinc there that would tear all above it to
ruins.
a PLAN PROPOSED.
It was all buster 60 begin with, but Se-gt.
Reese caught up the idea earnestly. he
fixed upon plan and laid it before his supe-
riors, promising that tho actual labor Of the
mine should be performed at all hazards
Finally he enlisted the colonel of the regi-
Inent, and that o.3ccr, being an engineer, ap-
proved the scheme, and had sufficient infu-
ence to get permission from headquarters to
begin the tunnel But it was permission
only The higher powers did not furnish
implements nor extend any encouragement
Reese and about q score Of his fellows took
some common caniptools, with empty cracker
boxes for barrows ard dug the earth in small
quantities, and at night carried it away out
Of sig 1T of the enemy. AS the tunnel grow in
length tho work became more difficult. There
was greater bulk of earth TO conceal, and the
shaft was dark and close Il would not do
to open an air shaft to the surface above
them, because the Confederates who occupied
the ground would discover it and defeat the
scheme.
The space between the Union and ConfeG-
crate lines under which they were tunneling
YVES occupied by sharpshooters, and ali day
and at night, whenever the air was clear, the
bullets did their deadly work whenever a
soldier exposed a target. The amount OF
matter taken out Of the excavation was 5000
cubic fest, over $50 cubic feet for every rod,
and all Of this had to be concealed as fast as
it came out by filing it into little ravines
and sunllen spots behind the works. And
then the.movement had to be held a secret
away from all Union soldiers that were not
in the mining party, because these mon were
frequently captured on the outposts and the
enemy could forco some weak .isoner to let
out his secret information.
AN AWFUL UNDERTAKING.
The fear of detection from the ground over
head also compelled the men to work in tbs
close shaft without air from the surface. The
smallest aperture could not be made over
head without danger of its being found by
some Confederate scouts or piCketS. All Of
the fresh air let into the tunnel came through
q wooden tube running from the mouth OF
the shaft and having a partition so arranged
as to carry q foul air current away and bring
in a supply of fresh air, and TIE circulating
movement was kept up by fire burned con
stantly at the mouth of the shaft TO set the
air in motion. This contrivance was help
but for oil that the miners became faint srOn
the fatigue end foul all, and the hard WORK
disabled them in about two hours, and they
had 20 60 into the tunnel in relicfs and bC
cheored and encouraged at every step. Il
proved TO be TO run shaft so Ear into thG
earth without ventilation and without me
chanical appliances.
The soul Of bhe enterprise at this hour q
Encouragement was 2eesa, who lahored al
most necessarily with the men and smoothec
over every obstacle and silenced every doubt
Tho distance to be covered was over 500 feet
and such an undertaking had no precedent il
mining annals. The experienced engineer
OF the army laughed at IL and the generals il
command refused to commit themselves 10 i
until its projectors should prove its feast
biiitv, and that could be done In this case by
the fact accomplished only.
At the end of the first half of the shaft tht
tunnelers ran upon bed Of quicksand anC
Is was impossible to work through it. for /
would cave in and Ill up the shaft rs fast 3
men could shovel IL ont. The work stoppc)
for tine. The surface Of the earth abov,
was thick layer Of clay, and Reese though
that by curving the shaft upward until tn
cIay was It's roof he could cross the sand be,
and then descend to depth 70 bring then
underneath the fort. This delicate work wa
ACCOMPLISHED By Reese almost alone. To
possibility Of being heard by the Confeder
etes sp over them while they worked close 1,
that shsl of a roof made this the most diff
cult Of all tho operations In fact the Wort
was heard, and the enemy sent out men Z
probe the ground with long pixies, but or
own marksmen bothered them 50 much viii
bullets that they failed to get their pixies int
the tunnel
TIE coMMANDER's COMPLIMENT.
The commanding general now visited th
mine and conplineated the faithful mine
for his triumph. From that time forwar,
the generals began TO have soldiers and can
non ready 20 advance over the wreck imme
x,;,e.,,, .S-.r ,be a1nloxio- and secure tn